TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS FOR REMOTE WORKING BUSINESS CONTINUITY RESOURCE GUIDE Define essential jobs and tasks. These essentials may include personnel, data, equipment, financial allocations, and infrastructure protection. Determine which functions and resources, if interrupted or lost, could impact your ability to provide goods and services or meet regulatory requirements. Establish a communications plan and policies. Collect a comprehensive contact database and identify key departments and people who will be responsible as primary channels of communication. The team should know their responsibilities and understand which decisions are theirs to make. Audit IT hardware, soſtware and test systems. Consider what applications and systems are vital for employee productivity on a regular basis. Do they possess the appropriate equipment in their home office? Do they have the right broadband connections? Is their access to endpoints and databases secure? Ensure a new mobile workforce is productive and secure as possible, here is how to prepare: While telecommuting and remote workforces are nothing new to the corporate landscape, organizations have certainly experienced a run-not-walk implementation strategy due to the rapid shiſt in business environments brought on by COVID-19. www.dandh.com/Continuity | [email protected]Our MSP/VAR Checklist will help you compile requisite information for each project and get your installs moving quicker. MSP/VAR Business Continuity Checklist CLIENT INFORMATION ESSENTIAL BUSINESS APPLICATIONS| DAY-TO-DAY TOOLS|
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TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS FOR REMOTE WORKING
BUSINESS CONTINUITY RESOURCE GUIDE
Define essential jobs and tasks. These essentials may include personnel, data, equipment, financial allocations, and infrastructure protection. Determine which functions and resources, if interrupted or lost, could impact your ability to provide goods and services or meet regulatory requirements.
Establish a communications plan and policies. Collect a comprehensive contact database and identify key departments and people who will be responsible as primary channels of communication. The team should know their responsibilities and understand which decisions are theirs to make.
Audit IT hardware, software and test systems. Consider what applications and systems are vital for employee productivity on a regular basis. Do they possess the appropriate equipment in their home office? Do they have the right broadband connections? Is their access to endpoints and databases secure?
Ensure a new mobile workforce is productive and secure as possible, here is how to prepare:
While telecommuting and remote workforces are nothing new to the corporate landscape, organizations have certainly experienced a run-not-walk implementation strategy due to the rapid shift in business environments brought on by COVID-19.
ESSENTIAL BUSINESS APPLICATIONS | Identify all business critical services and tasks that must continue during a disruptive event.
DAY-TO-DAY TOOLS | Prioritize the functions and resources required for continued productivity.
Applications Server Name Vendor Name Edition/Version Description
Accounting & Invoicing
File Backup & Management
File Recovery
Project Management
Category Vendor Name Edition/Version Description
CRM
Email
Instant Messenger
Meeting/Collaboration
UCaaS/VOIP
Microsoft/Google Suite
Stress-testing your client’s infrastructure places the system under an intense workload to simulate a worst-case scenario; if a component crashes, hangs, or otherwise fails a dedicated stress test, there’s a good chance that it won’t be reliable under a heavy everyday load.
Endpoint Protection – Remote devices accessing the network can be a critical security breach as users are not traditionally behind enterprise-grade firewalls.
Customer Inquiry: Are all your endpoint devices secure and fully protected from malware threats?
BUSINESS CONTINUITY RESOURCE GUIDE complete with client prep questions
VPN Client – Remote employees must have access to the organization’s private network to access internal resources as if they were on-site. *Test database-driven applications to confirm the need for remote desktop.
Customer Inquiry: Have you stress-tested your infrastructure to ensure support for the max amount of concurrent remote connections?
Remote Device Management – IT departments must have the ability to remotely manage connected devices including: servers, desktops, laptops, mobile phones and tablets.
Customer Inquiry: Is your IT team equipped to effectively manage all remote devices?
Hotspots – Continue to drive productivity in a remote environment even when wired/wireless Internet connection is not available. Hotspots also work as a backup if their ISP goes down.
Customer Inquiry: Are your employees equipped to continue to work should Internet connectivity be lost?
Security spend will increase from current
projected growth rate of 8% to 11% in 2020
– TechAisle
From February 23 to March 16 there was an upward trend of
attempted attacks with peaks at 145 threats
per 1,000 endpoints, compared to 30 or 37 at
the start of that period – Raconteur
IT professionals who educate themselves to enable distributed
or remote work strategies will be in great demand, not
just today but in times to come
– Spiceworks
78% of the US population accessing
the internet live in rural communities,
where internet connectivity is typically
less reliable – Daily Wireless
TIP:
Wireless Adapters – Convert devices that could not wirelessly connect to the Internet/network into a fully WiFi-capable device.
Customer Inquiry: How many USB ports does the device have and is there an integrated wireless card?
Ethernet Adapters – Adapters enable a direct connection to the internet/network source via Ethernet, providing the stability a remote worker needs for increased productivity.
Customer Inquiry: Do your employees have a stable and reliable internet connection at home?
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – Cloud delivery model to provide clients with an Instant computing infrastructure, provisioned and managed over the internet. Provides fast, secure access to company resources often at a cost savings and with less risk of downtime.
Customer Inquiry: Are your server applications and additional services on-premise?
Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) – Cloud delivery model that offers a variety of communication and collaboration applications and services, such as messaging tools, video conferencing and voice communications to stay connected with their internal and external teams.
Customer Inquiry: Would your employees benefit from video or voice conversations as they work remotely?
As organizations have transitioned their workforce from on-site to online, D&H is here to help you support your clients’ needs particularly as vital collaboration solutions escalate in current demand.
Collaboration – Maintain remote team productivity and camaraderie with a variety of solutions to engage, including Web Calling, Video Conferencing, Team Collaboration, and Document Collaboration.
Customer Inquiry: Do your employees have the ability to interact virtually with customers and colleagues? Do they all have access to shared folders and data for real-time updates?
Communication
BUSINESS CONTINUITY RESOURCE GUIDE complete with client prep questions
Web-video conferencing solutions are likely to increase from 38% to 89%, a
change of 184% – TechAisle
Desktop Hardware
Client Devices – Laptops are the most common way for employees to access corporate server, applications and software.
Customer Inquiry: Are your employee devices corporate-issued or personal? What applications need to run? Are there certain specifications that are needed - storage, speed, graphics, camera, touchscreen?
Docking Stations – Increase comfort and productivity by replicating the office space environment into a remote location.
Customer Inquiry: Are you connecting multiple displays in your home office?
Device as a Service (DaaS) is a multi-year agreement in which procurement, deployment, device management, services and lifecycle management are
all handled by you for a low monthly fee. Contact [email protected] or learn more at www.dandh.com/DaaS
40% year-over-year increase within the first three weeks of March,
2020 – Yahoo Finance
Availability of universal versions compatible
with various endpoint models strengthens
the demand for these devices
Printers – Wireless and multifunction printing options simplifies the home-office solution and works well with mobile devices. This will be helpful for those customers whose business is heavy in contracts, forms, agreements etc.
Customer Inquiry: What printing, copying, or scanning needs will your employees have?
Displays – Prolonged periods of work require employees to view larger screens or multi-screen displays. This offers a larger, more efficient work environment, that more closely replicates what they are accustomed to in the office.
Customer Inquiry: What size displays and how many are your employees accustomed to?
Accessories – Make working more comfortable and effective with productive and collaborative accessories: Keyboard | Mice | Webcam | Headset | USB Hub | Cables
Customer Inquiry: What peripherals will make your employees most effective?
Desktop Hardware
BUSINESS CONTINUITY RESOURCE GUIDE complete with client prep questions
138% year-over-year increase within the first three weeks of March,
The nation’s unique state of affairs emphasizes the importance of preparedness in times of operational disruptions. A well thought out Business Continuity plan can mean the difference between lights-on or lights-out if disaster strikes. It becomes the cornerstone in minimizing interruptions so businesses can continue to provide products and/or services. Our goal is to keep businesses connected to their critical processes, applications, data, work centers, and networks. D&H is committed to help support and exceed your business goals as you continue to work tirelessly in providing your clients the crucial technology necessary to move forward.
